I wish that people would not comment on how silly face blindness is. I thought of this comparison, and it sounds racist, but a lot of black guys up here dress very similarly. Hooded sweatshirts with the hood pulled up and sunglasses. Sorta the Unibomber look. It makes them hard to pick out in a crowd. I don't know if it is on purpose or just a fashion thing. Well, that is what it is like for me usually. Everyone who is dressed similarly is incognito for me. And the black guys obscure the one part of the face that I can discern, the lower side of the nose and the corner of the mouth. So they become a blur, absolutely invisible. If the people who don't take face blindness seriously were in a room full of people wearing hooded sweatshirts pulled over the head and sunglasses, it would be a long time before they could tell the hooded ones apart and then they would know how frustrating it can be.

I am quiet because I choose to be quiet. If you were me, would you want to talk to a bunch of strangers all day long?

Yes, in the small environment of work, I can tell people apart. I know their heights and people can walk up to my desk and I will be able to tell who they are. But if the two women that are the same height and haircolor don't id themselves, I couldn't tell you who they are. And I cannot id the people from my office when I am in the cafeteria. It is location specific identification and I am using other clues besides the face.

I have always had a problem recognizing facial differences unless there is something going on around a specific part of the face. I see men with beards much better than I see anyone else. I fell in love with my older cousin when I was 9 because he was a hippie and had a beard. But I cannot tell my two female cousins apart at all.

When I look at a clean-shaven person, I get few visual clues as to who they are. It looks like a mask to me. I see their features clearly, but I can't focus on one part of the face long enough for a memory to burn in I guess. Children all look alike to me. Women look alike to me.

People get insulted that I don't recognize them even after they know that I have a problem. It is like because I know they know it gives them a "special power" to be recognized by me. Sure. And monkeys will fly outa my butt.

I hold my face very still. People say that I don't have an animated expression most of the time. The term archaic smile has been used to describe my usual look. I rarely see anyone else moving their face around a lot and I guess with me it is "monkey see/ monkey do", though this monkey hardly sees anything.

Chris